Documentary set for release this fall tells the story of Man Up and Go

Jul. 5, 2012

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Juliana

GOODWIN

Stark

Want to know more?

To learn more about the film and to watch a movie trailer, visit: http://manupandgo.comThere is another Man Up and Go trip Aug. 14-25 to Uganda and Ethiopia, and there’s room for volunteers (this trip will not be part of the documentary). The estimated cost is $3,600. For more information, contact Mitch Hauschildt: Mitchhauschildt@hotmail.com Kari Gibson, Roger’s wife, has a blog about their adoption experience and their lives: www.mycrazyadoption.com

Orphans in Ethiopia

• Ethiopia has 4.6 million orphans, one of the largest populations of orphans in the world (800,000 were orphaned by HIV/AIDS). • Thirteen percent of children throughout the country are missing one or both parents. • Many street children don’t have access to basic rights such as proper care, education and psychological support. Often, orphans and other vulnerable children are forced to work to earn an income. They are exposed to various forms of exploitation, including sexual exploitation. • In Addis Ababa (the capital city), more than 30 percent of girls ages 10-14 are not living with their parents. Twenty percent of these 30 percent have run away from child marriages. • Very few government services help orphans. Source: United Nations Children’s Fund

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When Branson resident Roger Gibson went to pick up his adopted daughter in Ethiopia, she was six months old.

And only weighed 7 pounds.

“She had fever; she was born in a trash dump,” said Randy Bacon, a Springfield photographer and filmmaker.

“Roger was overwhelmed, which is true with a lot of people, maybe even more so with men. They are like, ‘What did I get myself into? Is there a way out?’ He said, I’m going to call my dad and say, ‘I don’t know what I’ve got myself into, but I think it’s too much.’ He was hoping his dad would say, ‘This is too much, this may not be the child,’ but his dad listened to the whole thing and said, ‘Roger, you need to man up. If (that child) dies, at least she will die in the arms of a father.’”

Gibson didn’t know it at that moment, but those words would spark an organization, change lives and lead to a documentary set to release this October in Springfield (the exact date and location are being solidified).

“Man Up and Go” is directed and produced by Randy Bacon and Jonathan Murphy of Springfield. The documentary follows 28 men as they travel through Ethiopia and Uganda to work with orphans, some who live on a trash dump. The 90-minute film focuses on five men — most of them in the Ozarks — who were on the journey in August 2011. It chronicles their experiences before Africa, in Africa and how their lives have changed since.

“It flipped my world upside down,” said Mitch Hauschildt, Missouri State University athletic trainer and one of the men featured in the film. “It affected me in a lot of different ways. It affected me in how I love my wife and kids, how I interact with colleagues. As much as Africa has wrong, they have a lot that is right. They are a relationship-dominated society. We are an event-dominated society. Looking at the world through that lens has changed the way I live life every day.”

From Africa to America

Gibson ended up staying in Ethiopia longer than expected and spent time at orphanages where he was flooded with attention.

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“One of the workers at the orphanages came up to me and said, ‘I apologize for the kids hanging all over you. They don’t get a lot of male visitors,’” said Gibson via email from Ethiopia, which is where he is right now. “I also noticed on a lot of the mission trips to Africa that the teams consisted about 80 to 90 percent of them being female. So when I got back to the States I started talking to the guy who actually really inspired me to adopt and who is my Man Up co-leader — Rob Neal.”

In 2009, Gibson and Neal trained together for a marathon “and started birthing the idea on those long runs ... this concept of what can we do for the men of Ethiopia? This was all tied into going there as men,” said Neal.

Gibson started Man Up, an organization (it does not have nonprofit status) that shepherds male mission trips to Africa. Men are encouraged to be role models, work with neglected kids and show what men have to offer.

Not long after, Bacon was looking for a new film project.

Bacon owns Randy Bacon Photography. He released his first film in 2010, which garnered 26 awards at film festivals across the country. He was interested in another film.

Julie Neal, Rob’s wife, approached Bacon about a movie in Africa, potentially on a water project. Bacon was interested but needed something unique because so many films have been made on Africa. For months, they batted around ideas.

“We kept coming back to where are all the men? Where are all the men? What Roger was doing. The Man Up concept and reaching out to the fatherless, to single moms, being a brother, that was the story,” said Neal.

This idea was different.

“This is an idea we can sink our teeth into,” Bacon said. “It’s not about AIDS. It’s a simple message that men need to do more to show what a true father is and simple things can do this.”

Journey to Africa

Gibson, an author and publicist, initially reached out to friends and acquaintances to tell them about his efforts.

Brady Stark, a retired Springfield police officer, had been on a mission trip with Gibson and signed on to go on an initial trip and then again last August when the documentary was being shot.

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Many scenes stand out, like a child prison in Uganda.

“The kid prisons there aren’t like here. The kids are either out begging and the city is tired of them, so they round them up and put them in jail. One boy was doing time because he was riding a bike and killed the neighbor’s chicken so he went to jail. He was 13,” he said.

Or the 3-year-old little boy who walked three miles with Stark, contently holding his hand.

“All he wanted to do was hold my hand and walk with me. They just want attention,” Stark said.

You can’t underestimate the power of a hug for these kids, said Hauschildt.

“So many of them are in situations with hundreds of kids and so few caretakers, so for us to go in and hug these kids and show them how important they are was all we needed to make an impact in their lives,” Hauschildt said. “Many of those kids, the only association they have with men is violence or sexual abuse. For us to have a positive influence was great.”

The men played sports with the children, did arts and crafts, spent time with African men who are trying to make a difference in their community and completed home makeovers for four families.

Nothing prepared them for Korah, a leper colony and mile-long, multistory trash dump where hundreds of children live scavenging for survival.

A scene in the film, shows the men’s reactions to Korah: some weep.

Cory Cotton, an Austin, Texas, resident, said it was “the most mind-blowing thing I have ever experienced. You’d be walking around and look down and be standing on a dead cat. No one was created to live like that.”

While the men spent time on the trash heap, bulldozers came in to dump more waste. As the massive wheels rolled forward, they stirred up trash from below. Little kids waited by the wheels and pounced as the wheels churned, looking for food and items they could sell.

Children have been crushed or had limbs crushed by the wheels, said Cotton.

Changing American lives

None of these men are foolish enough to think they can change Africa in two weeks, said Cotton.

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But they did make a difference, and Africa changed them.

Perhaps no one’s life was transformed more than Roger Gibson.

After organizing Man Up and seeing its power, Gibson sold his house and about two weeks ago, moved his family to Ethiopia and is working with a group of men who live in Korah.

“My passion is to invest in the lives of orphans and reinvest back into the men of Africa. There are so many programs for women and children that are great, but I feel the men sometimes get left out of opportunities to grow. Most importantly, I want to see more men get back into their home to be the husband and father that God created us to be,” he wrote.

Neal envisions one day joining Gibson.

Hauschildt is leading another Man Up team this August and says he knows mission work will be a big part of his life. He and his wife are raising money to help build a school in Africa.

Stark, the retired police officer, enrolled in a physician’s assistant program in January, and his wife just became a nurse practitioner. They want to devote themselves to medical missions.

Cotton, 24, is a member of Dude Perfect, a YouTube sensation featuring a group of young men who accomplish highly implausible basketball shots. They have made appearances on “Regis and Kelly,” “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and the CBS Evening News. Cotton posted videos from the trip on YouTube.

“It was cool to see an audience that had never experienced this and react and donate money. We invited them into this world,” he said.

Even though Cotton doesn’t have children yet, this trip made him want to adopt.

Rob Neal’s entire perspective changed. Neal used to believe that mission trips were not worthwhile. People in Africa need money and instead of volunteering, Americans should just donate the money they would have spent on the trip.

Now he believes: “There is no substitute for a physical presence. The power of just being there. Some of the single moms are so outcast and the idea that we come as men and put our arms around them and embrace them when they are outcast, changes their lives. The confidence swells inside them,” Neal said.

And for Bacon, creating this documentary has solidified his desire to direct more films and increased his passion for still photography. Because of film, Bacon approaches photos differently now and feels the awe he felt as a 15-year-old with a camera in his hands.

“I hope the whole motion picture keeps going because I know there are lot of stories I’d like to tell,” Bacon said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen (after the film is released), but we hope good things.”

The message is to act, said Neal.

“Find a way to plug in and serve,” he said. “The biggest goal is to get people to go. Whether they go to New Orleans or Joplin or Haiti, have the experience of getting outside yourself, set aside your life momentarily, and go.”